Technical Field
The present invention relates to the provisioning of passwords for a device to join or register with a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to smart devices with limited user inputs which can be part of the Internet of Things (IOT), and how the smart devices can join a network using a password.
Related Art
Some home network security standards such as Thread define a method to provision a device into a user's network based on a password. Some IOT devices have a very limited user interface, such as a smoke detector. Such devices may only have a single button, or even no button interface that can be used to provide a password to access a network.
With some IOT devices having a very limited user interface, such as one button, for the device to be configured to connect to a network, the Thread standard has proposed that a password be printed on a label for the device. This may present a privacy issue since the password printed on a label is easily discoverable. If that password is exposed to a hostile party, that party can set up a fake Gatekeeper to provision an IOT device with a hostile network that would take over control of that device. Exposure can occur when a hostile party has physical access to the device or it could be due to device manufacturer's error which exposes their whole database of IOT device passwords. Or perhaps a device manufacturer chooses a poor method of generating such passwords and they can be easily recreated.
It is desirable to provide further means to provide a password for a device in lieu of providing a printed label, and to make that password as secure as possible. It is further desirable to give the user of a device full control of that password and allow the user to change it whenever the user wishes. Finally, it is desirable to provision devices with a password in this manner, even for devices having a limited user interface, such as a single button or no user input.